In this episode, Evan Howell, a geologist-turned-writer, discusses his recent High Country News article examining the unexpected connection between the Grand Canyon and Meteor Crater. Though one landscape was carved slowly by erosion and the other formed in seconds by a meteorite impact about 50,000 years ago, new research suggests their geologic stories are more closely linked than they appear.
Meteor Crater, created when a space rock struck the Colorado Plateau at tens of thousands of miles per hour, remains one of the best-preserved impact sites on Earth. Scientists have long studied it to better understand planetary collisions and their effects. Howell explains how the underlying geology of the Colorado Plateau helps tie together the region’s dramatic features, from billion-year-old canyon walls to the relatively recent scar of an impact event.
The conversation explores how researchers reconstruct events across vastly different time scales, what prompted renewed interest in this connection and whether it reshapes how we think about the Grand Canyon’s history. It also considers what impact craters can teach us about Earth’s past and planetary processes beyond our world.
By connecting deep geologic time with sudden cosmic violence, Howell’s reporting reveals a broader story about the forces that continue to shape the American Southwest.
